The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Helleborus plant, botanically known as Helleborus niger×Helleborus×sternii and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘COSEH 980’.
The new Helleborus plant is a product of a planned breeding program in Glandorf, Germany. The objective of the breeding program was to create new uniform Helleborus plants with unique and attractive plant habit, leaf and flower coloration and resistance to pests.
The new Helleborus plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventor in Glandorf, Germany in December, 2007 of an unnamed proprietary seedling selection of Helleborus niger, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed proprietary seedling selection of Helleborus×sternii, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Helleborus plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Glandorf, Germany in January, 2009.
Asexual reproduction of the new Helleborus plant by divisions in a controlled greenhouse environment in Glandorf, Germany since March, 2009 has shown that the unique features of this new Helleborus plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.